


The Liminality of Little Things

by goodnyte



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, SHEITH WEEK
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 07:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7836019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodnyte/pseuds/goodnyte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When does hanging out become a date? When does a friend become something more? In which Shiro and Keith are millennials and are bad at making it clear when something is something it might not be. Pre-Kerberos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Liminality of Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sheith Week Day 1: Date.

Getting downtown from the Garrison wasn't the hard part. It was arranging so that two people could be downtown at the same time. Getting leave wasn’t all that difficult, especially on the weekends when there was hardly any reason to keep most cadets on base if they didn’t want to be there. But things were a little different for officers. The fact that Keith and Shiro had somehow managed to get a day off together on relatively short notice felt like a small miracle.

Maybe that’s why Keith felt his palms sweating as he made his way up the steps of the museum they’d chosen to explore with their time off. This wasn’t anything special, really. It was just the hoops they’d had to jump through that was making it feel like a bigger deal than it was. He told himself that all the way up the stairs until he saw Shiro standing at the museum entrance, dressed in jeans and a v-neck, managing to scream commanding officer even in civilian digs.

“Hey,” Shiro said with a grin as soon as he spotted him, waving him over. And: illusion broken. All it took was one grin for Shiro to be the boy Keith considered a friend rather than the officer everyone considered a legend. Keith couldn’t help a small smile, quietly proud that he was allowed to see this Shiro.

“Hi,” Keith said, looking up to take in the museum’s vast architecture. “Thanks for coming here with me. When you suggested we hang out more, I know this isn’t probably what you had in mind,” he said, crossing his arms against his chest – already defensive of his idea and his interest in these weird kind of history things, even though Shiro had been nothing but supportive of it since he’d suggested it.

And Shiro’s eyes narrowed, just enough for Keith to know he’d noticed the defensiveness. “Come on now. We’ve gone over this,” he said, reaching to clap Keith on the shoulder and guide him towards the entrance. “I like history just as much as the next person. Just don’t expect me to read everything on my day off from class,” he said and Keith couldn’t help a snorting laugh at his own expense..

Once they were inside, it didn’t take very long for Keith’s worries to take a backseat. It was a museum funded by the same grants that supported most of the Galaxy Garrison’s work. A way to archive some of their best findings and display them to the public, demonstrating why space exploration and research was necessary. Making it clear to people that when it came time to vote that funding for these wild and awesome things would be well worth their tax dollars.

But even Keith’s cynicism couldn’t dull how incredibly fascinating he found the place. He had loved it ever since he was little, when he’d come on a school field trip that by chance had brought him to his life now as a cadet. The stars had always held some special wonder for him, but seeing what the stars held and hid within them…

Keith wanted to see it for himself so badly.

“This is incredible,” Shiro said, glancing up at a model of the known universe suspended in one of the museum’s many rooms, constructed using the data collected from hundreds of Garrison mission logs. “I’ve seen it in our books before but wow,” he said, reaching up as though he could touch the holographic stars as they shimmed and spun around them.

“They really should bring our classes here,” Keith said, his eyes shifting from the spectacle to Shiro and his unshielded wonder. Keith couldn’t determine which he found more striking. “I don’t know why they reserve this place for little kids.”

Shiro hummed in thought, bringing his hand down and looking back to Keith with a warmth to his gray-brown gaze that caught Keith off guard, his heart dropping in his chest. “Maybe I’ll mention it to Iverson,” he said, but his voice sounded far away. “But look—“

And then he was suddenly very close to Keith, their arms brushing together and Shiro’s hand clasping his, lifting their hands together to point at the inky black at the exhibit’s edge. “That’s the best part,” Shiro said quietly, his voice so close to Keith that he could practically feel him speak. “That’s where we’re going.”

Keith blinked and tried to remember how to breathe. “Yeah,” he said a little breathlessly and he was glad he could explain it away as wonder or excitement or fear.

“Yeah,” Shiro echoed, and Keith didn’t understand the breathlessness he heard in his voice too.

.o.

Unfortunately, the museum apparently had a closing time. After being kindly-but-hastily escorted out by one of the docents, they made their way back to the Garrison together after Shiro assured Keith there was nothing else he needed to do on his hard-won day off.

“I got all my errands done this morning,” Shiro said, again, as they rounded the corner to Keith’s corridor. “There was nothing more I could ask from today,” he said with a grin but Keith pouted further.

“I took up all your time,” Keith said. “I didn’t mean for the museum to take all day—“

“It’s what I wanted to do. Trust me,” Shiro said, shaking his head.

“If you say so.“

“Thanks for letting me take you out,” Shiro said, smiling at him again.

_When had Shiro’s smiles started making his heart stop?_

Keith frowned further, brows furrowing. “I’m pretty sure the museum was my idea,” he said accusingly. Which made Shiro laugh, for some reason.

“Was it now? I guess so,” Shiro said rubbing at the back of his neck in false shame, smile untarnished. “Still, I feel I ought to be the grateful one.”

Now that had Keith’s heart doing flips in his chest. He tried to ignore the sound of blood pounding loud in his ears. “Thanks to you too,” he said, shrugging and he was pretty sure that his nonchalant act was unconvincing, given the way Shiro’s smile widened. “It was a good use of leave,” he said and Shiro nodded with a hum, agreeing.

“Let’s do it again soon,” Shiro said, reaching to place a hand on Keith’s shoulder and letting it rest there. It was so simple, something he’d seen Shiro do dozens of times to dozens of cadets but now Keith couldn’t get the memory of that warm hand clasped in his own out of his mind…

They parted ways with a friendly wave, and Keith could tell Shiro wanted to say more. Keith didn’t want to prolong the goodbye any longer, his stomach already feeling like it wanted to escape from his body and he couldn’t imagine that would be a good way to end such a great day. He made his way to his room as fast as he could and sighed in relief when he found his roommate gone, the place empty.

He sank to the ground against the door as soon as it was shut behind him, his knees finally giving up. “Was that a date?” he asked the room. He’d never been on date before. Correction: he hadn’t been on one before today. But he supposed that was what one would feel like – the meeting there, the happiness in someone else’s company, the touching hands… There was no manual for this and Keith really didn’t trust his instincts on this one.

What a nice date that was, his gut was telling him. Let’s do it again soon, said his heart, its voice Shiro’s.

“Ugh,” sighed Keith, leaning his forehead against his knees and burying his hands in his hair. He sat there for what felt like forever, just until his heart stopped pounding and he felt like he could stand up without wobbling. If this is what one date did to him, what would future ones reduce him to?

His breath caught in his throat at the thought and he found himself excited to find out rather than scared.


End file.
